FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRM
THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1997 (202) 616-2777
TDD (202) 514-1888
FORMER MEMBER OF NAZI-SPONSORED SECURITY POLICE
IN WARTIME VILNIUS, LITHUANIA, LOSES HIS CITIZENSHIP
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Department of Justice announced today
that a federal judge in Cleveland, has revoked the naturalized
U.S. citizenship of an Ohio man who assisted in the persecution
of Jews in Vilnius, Lithuania, during World War II and
subsequently concealed his activities from U.S. officials when he
applied to immigrate to the United States.
The denaturalization order, entered yesterday by Judge Paul
R. Matia, found that Algimantis Dailide, 75, of Brecksville,
Ohio, served in the Vilnius, Lithuania Security Police (Saugumas)
from 1941-1944, making him ineligible for citizenship. Judge
Matia found that the Saugumas committed "documented atrocities"
and that Dailide, a Cleveland area realtor, "assisted in
persecution of civilian populations" during his service as a
Saugumas officer.
The court's decision cited authenticated documents showing
that Dailide participated in the arrest and search of Jews
attempting to flee their forcible confinement in Vilnius,
including a document that indicates the Jews arrested by Dailide
were destined to be shot and killed at Paneriai, a wooded area
near Vilnius. Nearly 55,000 of Vilnius' 60,000 Jews perished at
Paneriai during the Nazi occupation of Vilnius.
The Vilnius Saugumas was subordinate to the German Security
Police and Security Service and had responsibilities which
paralleled those of the German Gestapo. The Vilnius Saugumas
assisted the occupying Nazi forces in enforcing the persecutory
treatment of Jews by, among other things, arresting, detaining,
and turning over for execution or other punishment, Jews caught
outside of or attempting to escape from the inhumane barbed-wire
enclosed ghettos. They also pursued any person who attempted to
hide or assist a Jew in escaping from the ghettos.
Dailide entered the United States in 1949 under the
Displaced Persons Act of 1948. Matia found that Dailide
"willfully and materially" misrepresented his wartime service in
the Saugumas when he applied to gain entry into the United States
by claiming to be a "forester" from 1942-1944 and specifically
denying any police service.
In December 1994, the Office of Special Investigations
(OSI) of the Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office in
Cleveland filed a six-count complaint against Dailide. In it
they alleged that Dailide's participation in Nazi-sponsored acts
of persecution while serving in the Vilnius Saugumas made him
ineligible for the visa he received to enter the United States.
The complaint charged that his subsequent naturalization was
illegally and fraudulently procured. In July 1996, the
government sought judgment on two counts based upon facts not
disputed by the parties. Matia granted judgment in favor of the
Government on both counts.
This is the third case in which OSI has sought and obtained
the denaturalization of members of the Vilnius Saugumas. In May
1996, a federal court in Boston ordered the denaturalization of
Vilnius Province Saugumas Chief Aleksandras Lileikis, finding
that "tens of thousands died under his command of the Saugumas."
Lileikis subsequently fled the United States and returned to
Lithuania in June 1996. In 1994, Kazys Gimzauskas, Lileikis'
deputy and a former resident of St. Petersburg, Florida,
abandoned his U.S. residence and returned to Lithuania while
under investigation by OSI. Gimzauskas' U.S. citizenship was
revoked by court order in June 1996. Lileikis and Gimzauskas
were Dailide's superiors in the Saugumas. OSI also has filed a
denaturalization suit against Adolph Milius, a former Saugumas
member (and Dailide colleague) now living in Tampa, Florida.
That case is pending.
OSI Director Eli Rosenbaum said that the proceedings to
denaturalize Dailide were a result of OSI's ongoing efforts to
identify and take legal action against former participants in
Nazi persecution residing in this country. "The court's
decision," he stated, "confirms that individuals, like Dailide,
who helped the Nazis realize their genocidal ambitions had no
right to enter this country, much less to receive the privilege
of United States citizenship."
To date, 57 Nazi persecutors have been stripped of U.S.
citizenship and 48 have been removed from the United States since
OSI began operations in 1979. There are more than 300 persons
currently under investigation by OSI, according to Rosenbaum.
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